This is Digital Podcaster host d by Dylan Schmid You know, I've been doing this audio thing for like, since the seventh grade really, I was recording music in the seventh grade, is when I started joining bands and we started recording music to cassette tapes. And you know, we had like audio that was decent at the time. Not actually that good at all. But you know, it got it got it did the job essentially. And then what was cool is sometimes we could take that audio and then burn it to a CD. And and that was really cool. Because, you know, having it on a CD cassette isn't all that cool. But having it on a CD somehow made it all the more legit. And I don't know what made me think of that, though. Is I've been doing this for years now. I'm 32. I was I don't even know what age I was in seventh grade years, I've been doing audio. And I'll still sometimes forget to hit the record button. It happens. It happens. So I don't know if you're like me, and you've hit forget to hit the record button at some point. Yep, it happens. And I didn't forget to hit the record button this time. But I have an other previous podcast, which is just hilarious. Because when you're solo podcaster, there's a lot to think about. And sometimes you just forget the one thing that makes everything go. So today in this episode, I want to talk about my approach to business because there are a lot of people that are doing business already online, and they listen to the podcast. And then there's people that want to get into doing maybe you know more, they want to be more of an entrepreneur and start doing more business online. So I figured it would be helpful to make one spot in the podcast where I can refer people to, to how I do business. And I'm all about transparency, because there is a lot of people selling stuff out there online, on how to do business online. And that's not the business I'm in. I'm in the business of podcasting, marketing, things like that. But I'm not specifically telling anyone how to run their business. But I will tell you how I run my business, so that you could, you know, take this and do what you will with it. Because maybe it'll help you and your own business. Or maybe you'll see how simple or difficult it is it will either make you want to do business or maybe not make you want to do business, either one, but I'll break it down as simply as possible. And I'm not going to spend a super long time explaining all this. But really, I just want to be transparent with it all. So what's my approach to doing business online. And a quick little background, I've been doing business online now four to 10 years, let's just say, let's just round up just for the sake of not feeling too old. I've been doing business online for 10 years, I started a company called stay on target. I have that tattooed on my arm. It started as a tattoo on my arm. But then I created a coaching business. So I created I was in my early 20s created this business called stay on target. And it was a coaching company like life coaching before life coaching was as abundant as it is now kind of got in early on that. And I was coaching people. And my strategies haven't changed dramatically in the years since what I used to do then, because Instagram wasn't as popular then also Facebook was popular, but it wasn't, it was a little different than there weren't as many businesses, it was still felt like Facebook felt like personal a lot more back then I don't even know if they had business pages at the time. But what I would do then is I would just stick to email marketing. Every Monday, I would send out an email. And that was how I would reach people. And that was it. Sometimes I'd include video, they would click a link in the email and see a video of me talking about something. But for the most part, it was just me once a week, and in that email, I would just add value. And I never missed an email no matter what. And it was cool because I'd send it and if I was up early or super late, I could see when people would open it all over the world because they still have this. But there was like a live map at the time I use Aweber. It's an email marketing service. And it will show me a live map of people opening the email. So it was cool to be like, Oh, someone in India just opened the email or someone in Europe just opened email. Super cool to see. But I never missed an email. And what was in that email was a lot of what's in like something like this podcast, or my general content that I push on social media platforms regularly weekly. And that is just value, value value, and then a call to action at the end. And I would try to keep it one and I still do this. One main idea. That's it. I don't want to give you so much that you're overwhelmed. I'm not sure where to start. But one main idea and I'll always give you the things that work and then at the end is some type of call action on what you can do for your own business self, you know, personal development, something like that. And then a little Ps that says like, Hey, if you want to work together with me in this way, here's a link for that. It's as simple as that, I don't try to get too complicated with it. Because I found especially if you're running lean, like you have a small team, then the more you add into it, the more less likely it's, you know, bound to get done. And the things that move the needle the most is getting things done, of course, but just getting things done quickly and easily. So there's minimal edits to this email that I would put out, there wasn't some big production that went into it, it was just me writing a letter to a friend with a call to action at the end, if you want coaching, click here, something as simple as that. And I had the patience. Because I would work other odd jobs, especially in the beginning, I didn't need to rely so heavily on like, needing to make the sale, I let things happen organically over time. And over time, as the audience grew, the numbers just play out in your favor, in my favor. And I would get people contacting me to do coaching. So I would do coaching. And it was kind of funny, because I was like young 20s, helping people way older than me, and genuinely getting the results and doing that. So fast forward to today, what is my, you know, approach to digital business right now. And you might be thinking like, this sounds a lot like content, well, the content is my approach to business, or organic and paid. But for the most part, my approach to business these days is add value, you know, add value, help people genuinely get results at scale. And that looks like creating content that actually helps people actually provides value in some way. So that means like, coming up with creative ideas, innovative ideas, all that stuff, to get people's attention, one, so the the content doesn't just blend in, but also not make it so wacky, and, and out of touch that nobody even sees it in the first place. Because it's like, not actually helpful. It's more just like, look at me content, what I've actually tried to do is just create genuinely valuable company, company, genuinely valuable content, and let people decide for themselves if it's something that they're on the same wavelength with or not, and then add a call to action. So, you know, there's different types of call to action calls to actions that I include. Some of them are for something for free, and some of them are something that cost money. But generally, I only keep it to one call to action for the most part. And that one call to action might be looking at three things. For example, like in the show notes, you might see three call to actions. But on the episode, I'll say, you know, just check the show notes for how we can work together something like that. And then if I'm making an Instagram post, there'll be one call to action as a PS on most posts. And that's really what I do, day in and day out. And I keep it lean, and I keep it easy, I get help creating content, most of the time with the podcast, because I have such experience and I'm quick at podcasting. And that's my business, is I just do the podcast myself currently. As far as like Instagram, I would say about 80% of the content right now is just me making it and putting it out there 20% I get help making some some carousel images, some of the single images. And that fluctuates, though sometimes it's 50% me 50% Some, some other help I'm getting, it really just kind of feels like where I'm at and the time, the season of my business, I don't need someone full time, all the time making content for me because I genuinely enjoy the process of making content. So that's different for everybody, of course, but I just like having that one to one touch with the audience. It really helps me feel what's working with the responding to and what isn't working. Because if I found to that, while there is a lot of value in batching content, like making it in Google Docs, and then outsourcing it to somebody, there's also a lot of value, and making the content and then putting it out and then seeing how the audience reacts. Because especially starting out like I don't have the biggest audience, but I still there is still an audience there. And I found that, you know, one comment makes is enough for me to gather feedback from whether someone likes or doesn't like something. No comments are also a sign that someone likes or doesn't like something. And all that stuff helps me know that the conversation which I see content is a conversation that people are seeing in the right way that's helping them because at the end of the day, my desire is to help people and if I'm not helping people with my content, what the heck am I doing? So I create content and I put it out consistently. And I put that content out for free with no paywall. I do try to make that again as valuable as possible. I know that implementation on the value that I'm putting out, there is a number of people who need help with that implementation, or just want to talk to me directly, naturally, I don't put some weird hook in the content, I don't put in some, like, you know, I'm going to give you 99% for free, but 1% of the content you have to come to me for because there's a secret, not really know the, this the because you can only put so much right? In one podcast episode, I can only put so much in one Instagram post, I can only put so much I can't solve all the problems. But I can put really valuable stuff, especially the mindset stuff, because that doesn't require actual, like long, more long attention and long implementation. So that's why you'll see mindset stuff on what I'm posting. But when it comes to the implementation part of things that cost money because it cost money to deliver that information, whether it's in the form of my time, whether it's in the form of creating the content, and then hosting the content, and then making like all the pieces that go together with actually making it a digestible thing, rather than just a YouTube video, because people all the time, say like, oh, I don't really think I should make a course on that. Because there's already a bunch of courses on that, something like that. And because I want to help people succeed at getting results, I look at those courses that are out there, and then I make them better. And then I put my own spin on them, right, because from what I see, when I'm helping people, I look at the pieces that I don't see other people, including that I am either doing better or doing differently, that I proven and gotten results with clients. And that helps me deliver those courses ethically, of course, because I'm like, excited about delivering it because I don't see it out there. And because it cost money to do all that stuff. I don't feel bad about charging it. It's not like that information is existing in that it's not like a copy of that information is existing for free somewhere. And someone is then, you know, oh, they could either get the free version of the paid version, no, the paid version of my stuff doesn't exist anywhere else. In the Format, I'm delivering it. There's like, you know, in my courses, it's like, there's like downloads and checklists. And there's like so much that goes into it, and videos and SRT files. So like, you can see all the captions, and the transcription, all this stuff, you don't get that in like a YouTube video, you just can't deliver that content the same without getting lost. So yeah, I'll make maybe a very similar video, that's like, extra helpful, but it's not going to be the same as what's in the course, it just can't be because there's a level in the course, there might be a little bit of overlap. But you think about like the work you make someone goes through to find a freakin YouTube video with some like step by step instructions on it. And meanwhile, they're battling all the other things, people will pay for apps that help them not get distracted. Like focus apps, it's a similar kind of approach to why people actually pay for online courses is because they know that they're going to get distracted, when they go on YouTube, and try to fight through all the distractions to get the one piece of information they're going to get to, when they get your course they're going distraction free into it. And they know that that's the one thing they're going to get from it. And when they sign up, they know what they're going to walk away with. So that's what keeps people going to courses. And that's why courses are so valuable. So yeah, put out a ton of content for free help as many people as possible, and I'll get paid for the direct implementation work. That's why when you go to also if you go to www.digitalpodcaster.com, you ee the call to action is schedul a call. And I try to keep ou know, again, the call to acti ns to a minimum. But on that ca l, when I when I talk with peop e, I'm talking about their podca t, and I'm helping and adding va ue as much as I can in a short c ll that I have with him. ut similar to the content, any r al like implementation work'm doing with them, it's gonna c st them money. Right now I can m et on the phone with people a d, you know, do these discov ry type calls where like I can k nd of quickly high overview et where they're at, learn wh re they want to go, and then see if it makes sense for me to e en support them in that directi n. But that's probably not going to be forever, eventually I wo ld have some type of salesper on doing that. But right now I an do that. So I do that. And, ou know, to get them to where t ey want to go, that's going to c st money, obviously, because I' a person and I need to supp rt myself. And it's not, you kn w, wrong to charge money to et someone a result, especia ly when the result, ultimately, is to make them money and g ow everything they're doing. nd that's like no BS. That's r al deal right there. So, yeah, nd I want to be upfront as that as possible. It's not like you j st hop on a call, I help you or free forever and then I do't get anything. No, there's an exchange and I think t at exchange is very important t o. that energy exchange. So ye h, that's that's basically how I do business in a nutshell, I ut out content consistently, r al valuable content that he ps people. And then I offer thro gh calls to action. If people w nt to work directly with me, t ey can hop on a call. And then we can, I can learn about t em where they want to go nd helping them implement and et where they want to go. That c st money. Simple as that. So if ou want to work together, eit er call the URL, add the call to action, go to www.digitalp dcaster.com. And you can sche ule a call there. And we can op on a call and see if it make sense. Of course, I I also incl de some other things in the show notes if you want more hand off direct implementation work and things like that. But that is how I do business as of Nove ber 2021. If it changes, whic hasn't changed much in 10 year, I'll let you know. And I'll let you know after it work, because I'm not just putt ng out theories here. These are ll time tested, proven thin s that I've done over the year that have worked, and that s why I keep doing them and that s why they don't change too much It's as simple as that. Alri ht, I hope you have a great week and I'll talk to you soon.